The Electronic Intifada Podcast 1 August 2024
In the past few days alone: Israel killed two senior resistance leaders and bombed Lebanon’s capital Beirut once again. There was also a serious outbreak of rioting on two military sites inside present-day Israel, as mobs of Israelis objected to apparent questioning of several soldiers suspected of raping a Palestinian prisoner.
And all the while Israel’s relentless genocide against the people of the Gaza Strip ground mercilessly on.
You can watch a recording of the whole livestream in the YouTube video above, or listen to the audio at the end of this post.
This week’s livestream began with a short special news report on the life and death of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh, presented by our director Ali Abunimah.
Haniyeh was assassinated during a visit to Tehran, the Iranian capital, in what our senior editor Maureen Clare Murphy reported “marks a major escalation that will likely have regional ramifications and came hours after Israel bombed Lebanon on Tuesday evening, killing three civilians.”
The news broke as we were still streaming on Wednesday that Hizballah had confirmed the death of Fuad Shukr, a senior commander in the Islamic resistance group, as a result of Tuesday’s Israeli attack on the Beirut suburb of Dahiya.
“If I say I’m fine, I’m lying”
After Abunimah’s special report, we were joined live from Gaza by our contributor Donya Abu Sitta describing what she called the “catastrophic” situation there.
“If I say I’m fine, I’m lying,” she told us. Donya and her family have been displaced multiple times by Israeli attacks since October 2023.
Yet she continues to valiantly write for us from Gaza, describing her horrific experiences and those of her friends and family.
Donya’s internet connection was interrupted before she could finish her remarks, due to the currently unreliable infrastructure in Gaza, much of which has been eliminated by Israel since October.
We hope to have Donya back on the livestream before too long.
Next we spoke to dissident Israeli historian Ilan Pappé about his new book, Lobbying for Zionism on Both Sides of the Atlantic.
But we opened our discussion by asking for his analysis of this week’s bloody events.
“It’s very clear Israel is behind that assassination,” he said of Haniyeh’s killing.
Speaking about the recent riots by Israelis, Pappé said that the phenomenon exposes a process that had already begun before 7 October.
There is “one section of the Israeli Jewish society, which I called in several places the State of Judea” which has “a messianic view about Zionism, a racist view towards not only Palestinians but also towards secular Jews.”
“A Christian kind of imperialism”
Pappé told us that this Israeli sector has now “entered almost every part of the Israeli military and security apparatus” and is now “taking over every part of the Israeli state and government.”
He said that “they are the base on which [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is building his political support for the next elections.”
Pappé took us through some of the most fascinating insights in his new book, including how Zionism “was not a bottom-up project” that came organically due to Jewish popular demand, but rather it was “a Christian kind of imperialism.”
He also explained the Israel lobby’s role in the demise of both US politician J. William Fulbright and former British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.
As usual, Nora Barrows-Friedman gave us a round-up of all the latest news from the ground in Gaza, and Jon Elmer took a closer look at the latest videos from the armed resistance in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
The Electronic Intifada’s Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program and Maureen Clare Murphy contributed writing and production. Eli Gerzon contributed post-production assistance.
Past episodes of The Electronic Intifada livestream can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
